Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes the recommendations from the Standing Committee on Finance for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The wish of the committee is to move to the discussion paper Towards a Strategy to 2010.

Mr. Ballantyne, I didn't get the first part of your comment. You are suggesting that we go on to Towards a Strategy to 2010? Is that what you are asking? Do we have the concurrence of the committee of the whole that we go into discussion of the document Towards a Strategy to 2010?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Mr. Chairman, can I ask that the Sergeant-at-Arms bring in the deputy Minister and Ms. Helen Balanoff, to be part of the discussion? I will be making introductory remarks, but if I could ask them to be at the witness table to go through the documentation?

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Do we have the blessing of the committee of the whole that the Minister bring in the witnesses?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, bring in the witnesses, please. Thank you. Mr. Minister, for the record, it is the practice of the House for you to introduce the witnesses.

Introductory Remarks

Thank you. While it is normal that I introduce the deputy minister first, I want to introduce first the person who has been the most important in the discussions and the development of the strategic plan and the discussion documentation and that is, on my right, Ms. Helen Balanoff. On my left is the deputy Minister, Hal Gerein. I noted, Mr. Chairman, with interest, the comments that have been made by the standing committee about how it sometimes seems that the department is a bit resistant or hesitant to consider change.

I would like to say, Mr. Chairman, that that's not really the case. Those comments are not really reflective of the kinds of changes and kinds of initiatives that have been undertaken by the department during the past year, at least since Minister Allooloo and Minister Arvaluk.

(Microphone turned off)

Proceed.

Thank you. That is the case. I know that there have been criticisms about the slowness of the strategic plan, but the fact is that no change can be undertaken without those partners who are an integral part of the process and who are part of the consultation process. They include the students, parents and the boards, that in fact manage on our behalf educational program delivery in our regions and generally in our communities.

The interesting part about the strategic plan and the discussions that have led to this is that we, in fact, concluded the mandate established by the Special Committee on Education some 11 years ago. We had undertaken that initiative to lay out new directions to respond to the ever-changing economy, technologies and requirements that have been placed on us by students and even by Members of this Assembly the need for us to change, to respond to the new circumstances that exist today. Not without recognizing us, Mr. Gargan earlier pointed out, the need for us to make certain that all of our students receive the same quality of education in every community. That is absolutely important and essential for us to be successful in our ability to deliver educational programs and services to our children.

All of us here in this House have had some personal experiences mainly because we are parents. Some becoming new parents will recognize the importance of education, no matter where it is provided. I have to commend all those who have been part of the development of the strategy or the discussion document to this date, because the fact is that we have not gotten to the point that we can say there is a strategy document that we can all see and all suggest is going to be the direction. We have asked for discussions and input from our elected leadership, our community leaders, our students, our educational leaders, our educational managers, the school boards, divisional boards, to give us ideas about how they see the educational system developing and improving so that we can respond to the educational requirements.

Mr. Whitford.

Thank you. What is the wish of the committee? Do you want to take a break? There is no quorum here so we will ring the bell. Thank you, Mr. Whitford. That was very thoughtful of you. Mr. Minister, would you like to continue with the opening remarks?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was trying to point out that all of us really understand the need for us to change, to respond to the needs of our children, particularly as it applies to educational programs and services. We all understand the value of them. I think, despite some of the criticisms that may be directed toward us, I have always been open to the concept of consultation and change. But, consultation takes time and it requires a certain amount of patience in order for us to do the work properly.

Change for the sake of change is not good enough. Change to improve the services and the programs is what we are all about, and we should all be encouraging. We need to change to have our programs more responsive to the needs of our children. We have to make changes so that our educational system provides for an opportunity for our young people to participate in a global economy, not only within our communities, but have the opportunity of going out of this territory to be seen as an equal to every other graduate of a high school or every graduate of a college program. I think that is absolutely necessary.

It is interesting, but our fundamental changes or reviews that have gone on, there are some changes that have occurred -- changes that have been led by former Ministers like Mr. Patterson, Mr. Kakfwi, Mr. Allooloo and Mr. Arvaluk -- all of which have resulted in more public control of education, more cultural and language programming, more aboriginal staff in our schools, more students accessing educational programs and also a flourishing college system.

In some cases, we should stand tall and be proud of the accomplishments of our institutions. We don't always recognize that we are one of ten institutions in North America that has a renewable resource technology program that is recognized as one of the ten best in North America. We don't promote it, but the simple fact is that it is a reality. We should stand tall when we see a situation like Arviat occur when more high school students graduate. It is as a result of community and business support that we receive an award presented to us by the Conference Board of Canada.

Those are small things, but they are big in terms of how we continue to promote our educational system. I admit to you that we are not at a level where we can all say that all the programming that we are offering in our communities is at an equal level or at comparable levels, but that is not without trying and that is not without a need for all of us, including the department and myself as Minister, to continue to encourage change and improvements to our programs and services, including our delivery systems.

I also wanted to say to the Standing Committee on Finance that I appreciate your support. I appreciate your concern. I appreciate the priority that you have given education. I think that we -- if we truly believe that we can work together and provide clear and constructive advice and have a dialogue, not only in this Assembly, but with our communities -- can change and bring about change to respond to the needs and requirements that we all have for educational programs.

In concluding, Mr. Chairman, I wanted to say again that for the general presentation on the document itself, Towards a Strategy to 2010: A Discussion Paper, I will ask Helen Balanoff to make the presentation and if there is need for additional response, Hal Gerein, the deputy minister, Ms. Balanoff and myself will respond to some of the questions as a result of the information provided to you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Ms. Balanoff and Mr. Gerein, welcome to the committee. Ms. Balanoff, you may proceed.

Presentation On Tabled Document 3-12(5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As most of you probably know, we began the development of the strategy just over a year ago. We started by reviewing different reports and studies on the various programs and services in the department. We also asked people for some information and general direction in terms of our programs and services. From the information we gathered, we developed the discussion paper. The discussion paper is still at a general level. But that is not what we are anticipating for the strategy. The strategy will be more detailed. It is a long-term strategy. It will have priorities, cost-implications, time lines and those kinds of things

in the strategy. We are looking at it as a guide for investment of the future in our programs and services.

I am going to start by talking about some of the factors in the world around us that are impacting on the programs and services in the department and look at the implications of these factors for our programs and services, then look at the general directions that we are proposing for each program area, coming out of those.

All of the departments in government are impacted by many of those factors, but we need to look at them in terms of our employment programs, our cultural programs and our education programs. Those are things like: the growing population; the culture and language situation in the NWT; the context that our programs and services are offered in; the health and social needs of the people in the NWT; the political and constitutional development, which is taking place all around us; the economy and the labour market; and, the financial environment.

In terms of the population, the population here is growing much faster than elsewhere in Canada. Our birthrate is about double the national average. Our population graph shows the projections to the year 2010. We have looked at those projections east and west. As you can see, the population is growing at a fast rate.

In terms of the age of the population, the NWT has a very young population. Children under 15 make up about one-third of the population, although that varies from place to place and community to community. In some Inuit communities, we see one-third of the population who are preschool age, one-third of the population who are school age and then one-third of the population who are adults. For a department responsible for programs like day care and for the school system, that obviously has a significant impact on the future needs that we have to be able to meet. The projections are that this kind of breakdown of the population, the age of the population, will continue into the next century.

That translates into a large increase in school enrolments. The enrolment in the school system is growing by about four per cent a year. That is cumulative. So you will see that by the year 2010, the school population will almost have doubled from what it is now. So in 15 years, it will be almost double. In some Inuit communities, there are 50 babies born a year. That is roughly two and a half classes of children. So that is the kind of growth we are seeing within the school system. This makes us different from most other jurisdictions in Canada because in most other jurisdictions, the enrolment in the school system is declining.

There are also spin-off factors from the increased enrolment. Obviously, we need larger numbers of teachers and, in terms of staff housing, there are needs there also. Our costs follow a similar kind of pattern. As our school enrolment increases, so too do our costs. We expect, in fact, that at today's rate of spending, our budget will double by the year 2005.

We do have many more students now reaching grades ten, 11 and 12 than we have had in the past. In the past, we had a fairly steady rate of participation, just over 40 per cent in high school programs. In three years, between 1988 and 1991, participation in high school programs, enrolment in high school programs, increased by 72 per cent. That is beginning to take us close to the national participation rate. In graph five, you can actually see that our participation rate is now close to 80 per cent. The national participation rate is around 92 per cent.

The higher participation rate coincides largely with the extension of grades in communities and also with some of the fundamental changes we have seen within the education system, since the Special Committee on Education. It takes a long time for change to be seen within the education system and we are beginning now to see the effects of some of those fundamental changes.

The higher participation rate is one of the critical steps in improving the outcomes of the educational system that were referred to earlier. We are expecting that this wave, in terms of student participation, and this level of student participation will continue. We are already beginning to see the impact of this on our adult education and training programs. Within Arctic College, in three years, we saw an increase of 68 per cent in full-time students. What will happen is that as these students move through the school system, then obviously that wave will continue into Arctic College.

I said before that as our enrolment and participation increases, our needs and costs increase, also. We have conducted a 20 year needs assessment of capital. You can see that we have a shortfall in terms of the needs of the department and the five year capital budget. The capital needs assessment, in fact, probably should be higher than this because we are now doing a needs assessment on Arctic College and on the student accommodation. So that will probably increase the level of capital needs. The needs of the school system are largely driving our capital needs.

In terms of the language of the population, there are significant differences in the use of the languages. This has implications for programs and services and for planning for language programs. Between 1986 and 1991, English increased as the language of use at home. Inuktitut and Gwich'in and a percentage of people who said Inuktitut and Gwich'in was their mother tongue, increased slightly, but is not reflected in use at home. We've put considerable effort into language programs and services and what we need to do is take a look at how we can effectively deliver these language programs and services to meet the aspirations of the people in the communities. There are obviously policy implications for programs and services from the status of the languages and from the use of the languages.

In terms of health and social needs, I think the Special Committee on Health and Social Services talked eloquently about the incidence of various health and social problems in the north including inadequate housing, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, and so on. These health and social problems are reflected in the needs of students within the school system and within the adult system. They also have an impact on student success. Just to give you an idea of how this is reflected in the school system, I'll talk a little bit about some of our findings from the studies that have been done within the department and which are supported by other studies.

Recent research by the department indicates that the incidence of students who need additional support within the school system is around 30 per cent. That's about 50 to 100 per cent higher than places elsewhere in Canada. Other studies, such as that done by the Kitikmeot health board substantiate these kinds of findings. When we first introduced the concept of integration and support for children in 1985, there was no way of measuring the incidence of students who needed additional support so we used a national average of 15 per cent. You can see that now we're estimating that incidence to be higher.

When we introduced that concept, we projected that we would need $11 million in order to be able to provide support to students. Today, the budget for support for students has increased to $9 million. It has grown significantly, but it is still short of the $11 million which was projected, and that projection was based on an incidence of 15 per cent. We are probably, in fact, supporting an incidence of around 12 per cent. During that time, too, the student population has increased and of course inflation is a factor as well.

We believe that means there needs to be an increase in terms of prevention and early intervention programs and there needs to be cooperation among parents and other agencies, organizations and departments, to be able to meet some of these needs. These needs are beyond educational needs.

In terms of political and constitutional development, we are already seeing major changes in this area. This, obviously, has to be one of the factors in our strategy because we have to be able to support the development of two new territories. From a planning point of view, this will probably be a large part of our work over the next few years. We also have a direct involvement in political and constitutional development because of our involvement in training and in supporting the training of claimant groups.

We're not quite sure what's going to happen in terms of the economy in the future. There is the potential for major resource development and some additional jobs, but even without resource development there is still the opportunity for employment growth among northern people. Employment has been growing steadily for the last 20 years and every year there are about 3,000 or 4,000 people who leave their jobs, who retire, et cetera. There are new jobs with the creation of Nunavut and there is also some potential for small business development. Obviously, we have to look at what those areas are in order to determine the training programs that we need to put into place.

There is a close relationship between education and employment. The employment rate increases with each grade level that people attain. So, obviously, education is key in terms of people's employment. Within the NWT at this point in time, about 70 per cent of the jobs require people to have a high school diploma or certificate or a university degree. Human Resources Development Canada has indicated that about 50 per cent of the new jobs in the future will require people to have 13 to 17 years of education. There is also a relationship between education, employment and income.

Aboriginal people make up about 56 per cent of the people in the Northwest Territories, but they hold less than one-third of the jobs and they earn less than one-third of the income. However, between 1985 and 1989, their share of employment increased from 34 per cent to 38 per cent. There are jobs in communities that many people can access if they have the required education levels, for example, teaching. Schools are often one of the largest employers in the communities. Nursing is another area, and there were references to the nursing strategy. Obviously, one of the keys is to help people to continue to access jobs that already exist in communities.

In terms of the finances, I think we are only too well aware of what the fiscal environment is that we're living in. We're living in a time of scarce resources and, obviously, that gives us some concern in terms of being able to meet the needs we're projecting in the future. We have to rethink how it is that we're providing programs and services and how we make them more effective, economical and more efficient.

Basically, the trends that we've looked at are the trends that will continue in the future. We can expect change to continue. We can expect the demand and the needs to continue growing and we can expect to see that reflected in our spending. There will continue to be urgency around language and cultural issues. We will continue to see the impact of health and social needs on people within our programs. People need and want higher levels of education and we can expect scarce resources to continue.

Within that framework, then, we looked at what our approach should be and what our proposals should be in terms of developing a strategy for our programs and services. We basically developed a three-pronged approach. One was strengthening partnerships. The second part of that was to look at the individual programs and services and to look at how we could improve those individual programs and services and make them as responsive as possible to people's needs. The third part was to manage our resources so that we can actually meet these needs.

We broke our programs and services down into five major areas but we also looked across the department at the kinds of approaches that could be used in all our programs and services. One of our general directions is increased community control and increased planning at the community level for programs and services. One of our other parts of that approach is to look at our relationship with different partners to be aware of how those partnerships are changing, for example, with claimant groups, and to wherever possible, change our role to support those changing relationships.

In terms of improving our programs and services, we are looking at a focus on standards. I think that is particularly true within the education system. We had some discussion on that.

We also need to be innovative. The Northwest Territories has many advantages and many problems in terms of delivery of programs and services. However, because we are fairly small, our response time can be fairly fast and we can be innovative. We can look at a range of different models. Another area in terms of improving our programs and services is to continue to improve access, to break down some of the barriers, either barriers to people learning or barriers to people participating in the workforce.

In terms of resources for the department as a whole, the focus is on integrating the programs and services that we have, and, as a result of consolidation, we have programs and services that came from a number of different departments. There is some overlap in duplication. Obviously, we can remove that and make our programs and services more streamlined.

To improve our cost-effectiveness, we are looking at things such as block funding for capital, for example, multi-use facilities within communities, so that there is more flexibility in terms of people being able to use the money and being able to meet the needs.

We have broken our programs and services into five major areas: culture, early childhood programs, the school system, education and training for adults, and information networks. I will briefly tell you what we are proposing in these areas.

In the area of culture, many of our programs and services already have a community base, but we are proposing that we increase that community base and that there be increased planning for culture and language programs at the community level, increased ownership at the community level for the language programs and services. We believe that these programs and services need to flow from the communities. We also believe that the programs and services need to be based on the status of the language. We also believe that, across our programs and services, we need to increase the emphasis on traditional knowledge, whether it is within the school system or within museum programs or whatever - traditional knowledge, in terms of the content of the program, in terms of the approach to the program, whether it be in a building or on the land and in terms of the kinds of skills that our staff have. For example, there may be a partnership arrangement between an archaeologist and an elder so that you have western scientific knowledge matched with traditional knowledge. We also believe that language services should be based at the community level and that it needs the support of interpreter/translator certification to provide the kind of support that is needed and to ensure that the standards are acceptable standards.

In terms of resources for cultural programs and services, we are looking at improved coordination and simplified administration of language programs and services. We know that it is sometimes difficult for people to access cultural programs and services or they may have to go to several different programs to access support and funding.

For early childhood education, we are proposing that there needs to be an emphasis in this area. There is ample evidence to suggest that the impact of early childhood education is significant in terms of student success. We have focused at the top end of the school, at the high school levels, and those are important, but we believe that we also need to look at the other end of the scale and to make early childhood programs an integral part of the education system.

We are also looking at different kinds of models that will help improve access. The Special Committee on Health and Social Services noted the Pelly Bay early intervention program as a model and we believe that is a very important model of cooperative services. It was a cooperative effort amongst the Departments of Education, Culture and Employment, Health and Social Services. We believe that is only one model. There are many other models that can be looked at. For example, language nests are another area where we can introduce the concept of culture-based and language-based early childhood programs.

At this point in time, access to early childhood programs and/or to day care programs tends to be better in the larger communities than the smaller communities. We believe that a range of models will help increase access to these programs. The other area that we think is important in this area is the introduction of day care programs in schools because it does have three elements: it provides an early start for children; it also provides parenting skills and high school credits for their parents; and it improves access to high school for parents.

We also have to create better links with the school system and also with federal initiatives, such as Brighter Futures or the head start program for aboriginal people that was announced this week. We also are proposing that we take a look at more cost-shared programs, whether they are cost-shared between the school and other people or whether they are cost-shared between business and the day care. That will be an avenue to explore.

For schools, the Minister indicated that we had made progress in many areas. Over the last few years, there have been some fundamental changes within the school system. We believe that, now, it is important to look at more community control, to look at more planning at the community level where parents, community people, staff, students themselves and other community agencies and organizations are involved in developing a shared vision for the children in their community. We have some examples of where that has been done and has been successful, for example, the program in Arviat.

We also believe that we have to deal with the issue of accountability. Everyone across Canada, not just in the Northwest Territories, is asking for increased accountability and better reporting within the school system. We have to make a greater effort to demonstrate that the school system is being effective and that our students are achieving. That is one of the proposals in here, which is to develop a comprehensive system of accountability within the school system. There are many parts of that system already in place, but we have to try and make it a comprehensive whole.

In terms of improving programs in the school system, we are proposing that there be a focus on quality and excellence. There are really four factors in terms of quality and excellence: what children learn; the skills of the teachers who teach them; the kind of support that we provide to children in terms of their learning; and the monitoring and evaluation to make sure that we are getting the results that we expect. We are proposing to look at all of those areas. We have NWT curriculum from kindergarten to grade nine, and we use Alberta curriculum mostly for grades ten to 12. However, we are proposing that we provide increased support in terms of developing and delivering programs at the classroom level including aboriginal language programs.

We talked a little bit about student support and some of the issues around that area. There are three major factors in that area that we think we can address: we need to look at the dollars that we have for student support; we need to increase our emphasis on training for teachers to help them to support the students in the school system; and we need to create links with other departments, and there has already been an interdepartmental protocol signed in terms of cooperatively developing social programs.

We already have a teacher training strategy. Our goal is to have 50 per cent of our teachers aboriginal by the year 2000. That strategy will obviously become part of the larger department strategy, and we are already seeing the results of the new community teacher education programs, and we heard some of the figures around that.

Monitoring and evaluating programs and services obviously fits in terms of accountability.

Technology is going to change the nature of the school system and the nature of the adult education and training programs. It helps give people better access to programs and services so that students who are in smaller communities have a broad range of programs and services that they can participate in.

We also are proposing that we create stronger links between all the parts of the education system, between the school system and the education and training system for adults and Arctic College as well as work.

We believe that improved planning at all levels of the school system will help us in some way to deal with our resource situation. We are planning now at the department level. Divisional boards and school boards are also preparing plans, and we believe that that planning is really critical in terms of meeting needs.

The other area that we think we need to focus on are joint ventures. There are a number of schools that already participate in joint ventures with business and industry. We also believe that we have to participate as a department in joint ventures with our boards, and we also believe that the boards together need to combine their expertise and share the work that they have done in an effort network more than we do right now.

Education And Training For Adults

As we said before, education is a key, and we have a great need for education and training for adults in the Northwest Territories, given our current education levels. There are many, many different groups involved in the planning and delivery of education and training programs for adults. The federal government is involved, this department is involved, other departments are involved, Arctic College is involved and claimant groups are involved, and those are only some of them. We need to look at coordinating the delivery of adult education and training programs, and we need to look at better planning at the regional level for adult education and training programs so that we are responding better to the needs of regions and communities.

We are proposing that there be more focus on community-based programs at the adult level and that we look at a continuum of programs within the community linking schools, adult education and training and employment development, and we have seen some examples of that already in some of the initiatives that are under way.

We will have a key role in terms of social income reform. That is important in terms of breaking down barriers for adults and providing increased opportunities, for them, to training.

We are also emphasizing the importance of innovative programs within the adult system, and I think the Building and Learning Strategy is an example of a cooperative strategy that also introduces innovation.

In terms of post-secondary programs, Arctic College delivers most of the post-secondary programs within the Northwest Territories. We have already seen that the needs of the adult population will increase, and we believe that is one of the large challenges for the college system, to be able to meet those needs.

The other thing that we need to look at for adults for post-secondary programs, is to look at the broad range of programs, right up to being able to grant degrees within the Northwest Territories.

Because we are expecting the growth in the adult population requiring training and education, we need to take a fresh look at our student financial system, because our student financial assistance system, at this point in time, is heavily subscribed, and obviously there are implications in terms of increasing enrolment for being able to meet the needs of students in providing them assistance to continue their education and training.

The use of technology will obviously be a key factor in the adult education and training system, as well.

We do have a deficit on the adult training side. Adult basic education, for example, has not had an increase in funding for the last five years. In terms of training to support the development of Nunavut, both Atii and the department conducted studies which indicated that we would need around $200 million, and we know that the Nunavut trust received $13 million, so we are very concerned about how to make our resources meet our needs in the adult system.

Information Networks

Probably one of the phrases that we will continue to hear is the information super highway, and we believe that, as a department, we have to be a catalyst for the development of that because it will support all of our programs and services and provide information access to people in communities, and we are proposing that we do that by building and expanding the existing programs.

In order to do that, we also have to help develop the skills of our staff, and they in turn have to help the public to deal with any apprehension around the area of technology. In the past, we may have gone in to a library to borrow a book. Now, we may go in to a library and have to use a computer to link to some information systems. We need to be able to give people, our users, the skills to do that.

We are proposing that we build on what already exists, but we recognize that this is an area where we also have to build partnerships in terms of the investment that is required, partnerships with the private sector, such as NorthwesTel, and partnerships throughout government, and partnerships with all levels of government.

That is a very general overview of what we are proposing in the strategy. At this point in time, we are now consulting with our various partners, with the various stakeholders in our programs and services. What we want is more detailed information so that we can roll the strategy out and include some of the things such as priorities, such as the cost implications. We are intending to have the strategy completed in draft form by June. Thank you very much.

Thank you. General comments on Towards a Strategy to 2010. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is not debatable. To the motion. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will rise and report progress. Before I rise, I would like to thank the Minister and his witnesses for appearing before committee of the whole. Thank you very much.

---Applause

I will call the House back to order. Item 19, report of committee of the whole. The honourable Member for Natilikmiot, Mr. Ningark.